Reforming the police in post-Soviet states
Subtitle: Georgia and Kyrgyzstan
By: Erica Marat
Contributors: Army War College (U.S.). Strategic Studies Institute; Army War College (U.S.). Press
Series: Letort papers; Letort papers
Publisher: Strategic Studies Institute and U.S. Army War College Press
Published: 2013
Place of publication: Carlisle, PA
Language: eng
Number of pages: 57
ISBN-13: 9781584876014
Subjects: Police; Police administration; Case studies
Description: This report identifies and explains the determinants of police reform in former Soviet states by examining the cases of Georgia and Kyrgyzstan. The two cases were chosen to show two drastically different approaches to reform played out in countries facing arguably similar problems with state-crime links, dysfunctional governments, and corrupt police forces. In Georgia, the government's reform program has fundamentally transformed the police, but it also reinforced the president Mikhail Saakashvili regime's reliance on the police. With two political regime changes in one decade, Kyrgyzstan's failed reform effort led to increasing levels of corruption within law enforcement agencies and the rise of violent nonstate groups. The experiences of Georgia and Kyrgyzstan show that a militarized police force is unlikely to spontaneously reform itself, even if the broader political landscape becomes more democratic. If anything, the Interior Ministry will adapt to new political leadership, both to ensure its own position in society and to continue receiving the state resources needed to sustain itself. Both Georgia and Kyrgyzstan offer important guidelines for conducting successful police reform in a former Soviet state, advice that could be helpful to the Middle Eastern states currently undergoing rapid political transformation.
Notes: "November 2013."

Includes bibliographical references (pages 47-57).

Also available online in PDF format from Strategic Studies Institute (SSI) web site.
Table of contents: title: Introduction; title: What constitutes police reform; title: Georgia. The reform; title: A "police state"; title: Dealing with mass riots; title: Kyrgyzstan. Reform programs and authoritarian leadership; title: Moving the reform out of the Interior Ministry; title: The policeman's dilemma; title: Conclusions and recommendations.